[01.03.2ÎÎ3] Corruption in Kyrgyzstan - Cause for Concern, Official Says

Corruption in Kyrgyzstan is causing not only material but also moral damage, the head of the department for affairs of defense and the law-enforcement agencies at the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration, Bolot Dzhanuzakov, has said. He thinks that it is possible to curb corruption only by eradicating contraband. But contraband must be combated with economic methods rather than administrative ones. The main reason for the increase in contraband so far is noticeably lower prices for consumer goods in neighboring countries than in Kyrgyzstan. A large amount of quality goods produced in the country has accumulated at warehouses. But the problem is that their prices are too high, giving rise to loopholes for smuggling the same goods from foreign countries. At the same time, Dzhanuzakov said that it must not be maintained that contraband had reached great volumes. "According to the studies of the last four or five years, Kyrgyzstan's state budget failed to receive from 600m to 800m soms [12,987,012 dollars to 17,316,017 dollars] annually because of contraband," Dzhanuzakov said. He said that 1.5m deciliters of liqueur and vodka, over 400 t of fuel and lubricants and a large amount of medicines were imported into Kyrgyzstan from neighboring countries in 2002. The interconnection of corruption at state bodies such as the customs office, the tax service, the law-enforcement agencies and the judicial bodies is at the bottom of this, the Agym [opposition] newspaper has reported.